Northwestern Mike Kafka an army of one

Wildcats quarterback can beat you with his arm and legs

Northwestern's starting quarterback wasn't even recruited as a quarterback. At least not by most schools, who projected him as a receiver.

But Northwestern saw something different.

In the spring of 2003, Pat Fitzgerald was Northwestern's defensive backs coach. His recruiting area included the South Side of Chicago, his native turf.

One day he went to St. Rita High to watch Mike Kafka play baseball.

"He made a throw from right field," Fitzgerald recalled, "and I said: 'Wow, this kid's got a hose.'"

Kafka was not surprised to hear that.

"I threw a few guys out," he said. "A couple at second, a couple at third, a couple at home. They got a little greedy, so I had to put them in their place."

Kafka smiled. That might just rank as the cockiest thing he ever has said. At least publicly.

After he had the game of his life last fall -- rushing for 217 yards and completing two touchdown passes in a dramatic victory at Minnesota -- Kafka uttered one quote that made the Chicago papers.

"The game plan was to take care of the football," he said.

That lack of bravado is not surprising, though, for a kid who does things the right way.

Younger brother Jason called Mike "my role model."

The two lived together this summer in Evanston so Mike could push Jason during workouts. Jason is a redshirt freshman walk-on quarterback at San Jose State.

"It's tough love, for sure," Jason said. "When we're lifting, there are no excuses. It's get the job done."

Mike would have Jason do an isometric lunge and hold the position for five minutes. After 3 1/2 torturous minutes, Jason would stand up for a break.

"What are you doing?" Mike would ask him.

"He'd make me finish it," Jason recalled. "That's how he is, and that's what I love about him."

Jason hopes to climb the depth chart this year, but he sounds equally excited about his big brother, who has backed up C.J. Bacher the past two seasons.

"I'm so excited for Mike," Jason said. "He had to wait for years and now he's the guy. I've been waiting for this just like he has."

Mike excelled at sports growing up. He played running back in grammar school, then switched to quarterback in the 8th grade.

"Right away, everyone said: 'I could see this kid playing on Saturdays,'" said his mother, Sandra.

At St. Rita, he captained the football and baseball teams. His father, Mike, recalled his son staying at school until 7 or 8 p.m.

"He was either studying or working out," the father said. "I just know he got home from school late. We didn't have to push him at all."

Mike committed to Northwestern after a small bit of drama. After Fitzgerald and the late Randy Walker visited the Kafkas and offered Mike a scholarship, he asked Walker whether he could commit but still visit the University of Pittsburgh. Walker said no.

On his way to the airport the next day, Kafka asked his grandfather to turn the car around. Kafka then pledged his allegiance to the purple.

Kafka started four games at quarterback as a redshirt freshman in 2006, putting up superb numbers (13-for-17 passing, 89 rushing yards) against Miami of Ohio. But a hamstring injury limited him, and Bacher seized the job after his fractured fibula healed.

"It's hard as a freshman, especially being a Chicago guy," Kafka said. "You have a lot of guys back home who want to talk to you and they want to love you up. At the time it might have been too much for me. You look back and understand where you were at the time -- pretty green, pretty young and pretty dumb. As much as I thought I knew [about playing quarterback], I didn't know."

Last year at Minnesota, Kafka not only ran for those 217 yards -- "It still gives me nightmares," Golden Gophers coach Tim Brewster said -- he ended the season with a team-best 131.1 pass-efficiency rating, completing 32 of 46 passes while throwing two touchdowns and three interceptions.

The way Fitzgerald sees it, people would be foolish to view Kafka as merely a running quarterback.